I'm posting one puzzle, riddle, math, or statistical problem a day. Try to answer each one and post your answers in the comments section. I'll post the answer the next day. Even if you have the same answer as someone else, feel free to put up your answer, too!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Someone Suggested This One

There are 7 girls in a bus.
Each girl has 7 backpacks.
In each backpack, there are 7 big cats.
For every big cat, there are 7 little cats.
Question: How many legs are there in the bus?

Ad Williams... generally buses don't have wheels 'inside' themselves. Learn to read. The answer is 10,990 legs, given every living thing listed has the normalized set of legs for their respective species, that all the girls' backpacks are indeed in the bus, and that the 2401 little cats are indeed inside of the girls' backpacks.

I got 10990, but wasn't thinking of the driver. Of course, no driver is mentioned. It doesn't say the backpacks with the cats are on the bus, but it doesn't say they aren't. However, that's an awful lot of cats and kittens stuck in backpacks, so I'm thinking there's a lot of squealing and meowing going on. ;)

so many different answers HAHA... just read the problem carefully - "EACH girl has 7 backpacks" - that means there are 49 backpacks!!! NOT 7! i think thats where most of the discrepancy is coming from, because then you have alot more cats.

Apologies for my answer guys, apparently I can't read! How I got the same answer as i3ruce I'll never know. If you're going to be picky you can't refer to buses using 'themselves' as they do not posess 'self'. Learn the rules of language.

most say it is 10,990, and i agreeyou have 7 backpacks per girl. one of those packs has 7 cats. that is 49 cats. then each of those 49 cats has 7 kittens, so 49 times 7=343 kittens, plus 49 cats, equals 392 cats total.

then 392 times 4, for each of the legs on a cat=1,568. then add 2 for the girl, and you get 1,570 for each girl. multiply by 7 = 10,990.

point out if you see a flaw in my math, though i think i did it right.

Does a bus have wheels?Is there a bus driver?are the backpacks on the bus?are the smaller cats on the bus?Are there any boys on the bus?Is this bus the national limbless association and in fact some of the passengers have no/only one leg?Else its 10,990, I think

Err. I re-read that and now I am confused. I put there are 14 legs on the bus when in fact, technically a bus has no legs it has wheels. However, the question reads How many legs are there in the bus? IN THE BUS. I'm confused, but I guess as a final answer I would guess 14. Don't cats have 'paws'?

I'd say for the purposes of answering this question, given that there is no driver on the bus, the bus is automatic enough to half a self, just imo. It could go either way, given the information, so to claim otherwise would be just as possibly nonsensical.

Its a total of 10,990 feet.7 girls have 14 feet.they have 49 bags all together.49 bags have 7 cats each so there are 342 big cats. Each big cat has 7 small cats so there are 2401 small which makes for a total of 2744 cats. cats have 4 feet so in total they have 10,976 feet.Add the girls feet to the cats (14+10,976) you have 10,990 feet in total.

I can only deal with the question as it is written, so no created people/drivers/animals other than those described on the bus are allowed ;-) Also, I believe cats have legs, even if they don't have hands (instead they have paws). I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure they have legs.

10,990 is the answer, as it has been described already by many people.

10,990 is the answer???? How the hell did anyone come to that conclusion?

Please show working out as last time I checked cats only had 4 legs and girls only have 2, so 70 surely is the correct answer. Now unless some weird rules apply to girls with cats and kittens on buses, then some strange multiplication has taken place.

Ad Williams... generally buses don't have wheels 'inside' themselves. Learn to read. The answer is 10,990 legs, given every living thing listed has the normalized set of legs for their respective species, that all the girls' backpacks are indeed in the bus, and that the 2401 little cats are indeed inside of the girls' backpacks.

I got 10990, but wasn't thinking of the driver. Of course, no driver is mentioned. It doesn't say the backpacks with the cats are on the bus, but it doesn't say they aren't. However, that's an awful lot of cats and kittens stuck in backpacks, so I'm thinking there's a lot of squealing and meowing going on. ;)

so many different answers HAHA... just read the problem carefully - "EACH girl has 7 backpacks" - that means there are 49 backpacks!!! NOT 7! i think thats where most of the discrepancy is coming from, because then you have alot more cats.

Apologies for my answer guys, apparently I can't read! How I got the same answer as i3ruce I'll never know. If you're going to be picky you can't refer to buses using 'themselves' as they do not posess 'self'. Learn the rules of language.

most say it is 10,990, and i agreeyou have 7 backpacks per girl. one of those packs has 7 cats. that is 49 cats. then each of those 49 cats has 7 kittens, so 49 times 7=343 kittens, plus 49 cats, equals 392 cats total.

then 392 times 4, for each of the legs on a cat=1,568. then add 2 for the girl, and you get 1,570 for each girl. multiply by 7 = 10,990.

point out if you see a flaw in my math, though i think i did it right.

Does a bus have wheels?Is there a bus driver?are the backpacks on the bus?are the smaller cats on the bus?Are there any boys on the bus?Is this bus the national limbless association and in fact some of the passengers have no/only one leg?Else its 10,990, I think

Err. I re-read that and now I am confused. I put there are 14 legs on the bus when in fact, technically a bus has no legs it has wheels. However, the question reads How many legs are there in the bus? IN THE BUS. I'm confused, but I guess as a final answer I would guess 14. Don't cats have 'paws'?

I'd say for the purposes of answering this question, given that there is no driver on the bus, the bus is automatic enough to half a self, just imo. It could go either way, given the information, so to claim otherwise would be just as possibly nonsensical.

Its a total of 10,990 feet.7 girls have 14 feet.they have 49 bags all together.49 bags have 7 cats each so there are 342 big cats. Each big cat has 7 small cats so there are 2401 small which makes for a total of 2744 cats. cats have 4 feet so in total they have 10,976 feet.Add the girls feet to the cats (14+10,976) you have 10,990 feet in total.

I can only deal with the question as it is written, so no created people/drivers/animals other than those described on the bus are allowed ;-) Also, I believe cats have legs, even if they don't have hands (instead they have paws). I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure they have legs.

10,990 is the answer, as it has been described already by many people.

10,990 is the answer???? How the hell did anyone come to that conclusion?

Please show working out as last time I checked cats only had 4 legs and girls only have 2, so 70 surely is the correct answer. Now unless some weird rules apply to girls with cats and kittens on buses, then some strange multiplication has taken place.